Some personal stuff - and prototypes building!


What about the robustness ? Compared to the OP cases ?

Hard to tell with just a few people using them yet :)
But none of the transparent cases have developed any cracks yet, so it seems good.

Incidentally, do I take it that this focus on perfecting the case moulding process means that the shoulder buttons (replete with springs?) are now working perfectly?

No, not yet. Different things are happening at the same time :)
While some work on the material, others work on the fixes for the rest.

I just made a video for the team showing exactly what needs to be fixed. You can find it here:

Please do note that this was not meant to be released to the public, so some stuff might sound weird :)
It's a very thorough explanation what we need to fix here.

Right now, the company is closed (easter holidays) until May 2nd, but work will resume then :)
 
Hard to tell with just a few people using them yet :)
But none of the transparent cases have developed any cracks yet, so it seems good.



No, not yet. Different things are happening at the same time :)
While some work on the material, others work on the fixes for the rest.

I just made a video for the team showing exactly what needs to be fixed. You can find it here:

Please do note that this was not meant to be released to the public, so some stuff might sound weird :)
It's a very thorough explanation what we need to fix here.

Right now, the company is closed (easter holidays) until May 2nd, but work will resume then :)
You're very good at explaining the issues. Are there any other issues you're making videos on? Is the D-pad glued onto the keymatt like it was on the Pandora?
 
I just made a video for the team showing exactly what needs to be fixed. You can find it here:

Please do note that this was not meant to be released to the public, so some stuff might sound weird :)

Sounds good enough to my ears (except for your pronouncing height as if it were spelt heith or something – it's usually pronounced like the first part of the German word „heiter”).
Anyway, did I understand this correctly that FormAction just neglected to drill in the support pegs featured in your CAD files into the mold? Or did you tell them to hold off on that until the first few samples so you could test something?
 
You're very good at explaining the issues. Are there any other issues you're making videos on? Is the D-pad glued onto the keymatt like it was on the Pandora?

Thanks :) I don't think there are any other issues left, except for this one which prevents the shoulder buttons from working properly :)
The DPad is glued on like it was on the Pandora, yes. I tried without, but it doesn't feel as good.
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Anyway, did I understand this correctly that FormAction just neglected to drill in the support pegs featured in your CAD files into the mold? Or did you tell them to hold off on that until the first few samples so you could test something?

Even weirder! FormAction designed case, so it was their own CAD files!
They can clearly be seen in the 3D Data, but they're missing in the mold!

I didn't notice this at first - before greenlighting the mold, I used 3D printed cases, and of course, everything was correct there!
I didn't expect that stuff from the 3D data would be MISSING! I figured that the 3D data is automatically translated into data for the CAD machine, but it seems there's still some manual interaction, as these support pegs were missing!

Well, and I didn't notice that until I made a thorough inspection why the shoulder buttons caused such issues... this is definitely something you don't expect!
 
The Pandora keymat's guide holes are larger in diameter to go around the expanded peg shoulders. It did not look like the Pyra keymat had the same size of guide holes - might require a tweak to the keymat to fit a modified case with support shoulders on the guide pins. You are probably already aware of this - just making sure.
 
The Pandora keymat's guide holes are larger in diameter to go around the expanded peg shoulders. It did not look like the Pyra keymat had the same size of guide holes - might require a tweak to the keymat to fit a modified case with support shoulders on the guide pins. You are probably already aware of this - just making sure.
It is big enough. The keymat designers used the 3D data of the case where the pegs exist. It might not look like that in the video, but the space is enough.
 
Does this need new moulds or existing ones can be tweaked ?
I'd imagine with some care this should be doable with the existing moulds (would probably be too expensive otherwise). Generally, adding some plastic (support pegs, extending the shoulder button hinge, making the case thicker around the screen hinges, …) you can do by shaving off more of the mould … removing plastic is (usually) more expensive.
 
It is big enough. The keymat designers used the 3D data of the case where the pegs exist. It might not look like that in the video, but the space is enough.

What are the dimensions of the 'missing guide-pin shoulder plastic"? I'm wondering if we can find a suitable nylon washer to fit the prototype cases... That still wouldn't solve the shoulder button though... But every little bit. It is hard to tell the diameter of the pin and the diameter of the keymat hole from the video. Who knows, maybe it winds up being a standard washer size?

Code:
https://www.amazon.com/Guard4U-450Pcs-Black-Washer-Assortment/dp/B06W2LQQRN
 
@EvilDragon I think, I heard something like not every 3D-CAD modell is usable with CNC-mills or rather the need for a certain structure. Something about how the model is constructed like starting with a block and taking shapes away would be prefered or needed. I'm not terribly sure, though.

Someone more knowledgable than me around?
 
Whow. I know nothing about plastics, mechanics, 3D or the like, and I still could understand the issues. This video is very well explained. I wish I could explain myself as good as you do, EvilDragon. Congratulations. And I wish I had your English pronunciation, despite one height mispronounced, which is a trivia not worth mentioning and doesn't prevent comprehension.

Now, I understand fixing the case would be the best solution.

Only if the case plastics could not be fixed for some reasons: could some rings (some of them partial rings) be produced to add to the case, like spacers, so that the pcb sits firmly on them and them on the case ? It's more complicated (slows down assembly and risks losing parts when selfservicing the Pyra) ) than fixing the moulds, but I only mean it in case fixing the moulds is too difficult, too expensive or too risky. Maybe one can design some additional plastic than can be mounted between the case and the pcb and stays in place because it has the proper dimensions ? If there would be enough room around the pegs, they could maybe be off-the-shelf spacers, like between the buttons, but since in some places the the missing rings are not complete because they touch other bezels in the case, then maybe custom pieces could be moulded, 3d printed, CNC machined or something ?


I'm only saying this because of some recollection that the new company cannot produce moulds, so if trying to fix the moulds would somehow damage them then we'd be back to first step. But I don't know if this damage is a real possibility at all.
 
As a native english speaker, I didn't notice any words being specifically mispronounced, just the overall slightly german accent. A comedian we have here is a german called Henning Wein and if you were to start correcting his english pronunciation you'd be here all week; ED's english sounds much more natural to my ear.

As I understand the process, adding the rings to the mould is a matter of milling a rim around the peg to the specified depth, so should be easily doable by cnc milling, or even by hand if you were careful and kept measuring. The moulds have I think been hardened already which makes doing this tricky, but no tricker that anything else they've done already to them.
 
Does this need new moulds or existing ones can be tweaked ?

It's a bit of plastic that needs to be added, which means it's simply drilling a bit more with a CNC into the metal.
No new moulds are needed here.

It's more complex when you want to REMOVE some plastic (as it means you need to fill it up, a mould is always negative)
 
Weird that this Shoulder Button issue surfaces so late in the development but how ED described it, no doubt the old Case Company messed it up. And we spent so much time in the community back then to focus on the Pyra Shoulder buttons to be better than the ones at the Pandora, which also had many issues. Mine only work with pieces of paper in it for instance. At least it seems that for the Pyra it can be fixed in a professional way now, instead of additional paper pieces. ^^
And then we want to know how good the buttons actualy work, pls ;)
 
[...]

Even weirder! FormAction designed case, so it was their own CAD files!
They can clearly be seen in the 3D Data, but they're missing in the mold!

I didn't notice this at first - before greenlighting the mold, I used 3D printed cases, and of course, everything was correct there!
I didn't expect that stuff from the 3D data would be MISSING! I figured that the 3D data is automatically translated into data for the CAD machine, but it seems there's still some manual interaction, as these support pegs were missing!

Well, and I didn't notice that until I made a thorough inspection why the shoulder buttons caused such issues... this is definitely something you don't expect!

I guess, what happened there is: They started the process with an older 3D version and added the pegs later in the file. So two different versions of data laing around (witch goes horribly wrong all the time)

@EvilDragon I think, I heard something like not every 3D-CAD modell is usable with CNC-mills or rather the need for a certain structure. Something about how the model is constructed like starting with a block and taking shapes away would be prefered or needed. I'm not terribly sure, though.

Someone more knowledgable than me around?

13 y of 3D-CAD development experience. I know, that everything can go wrong everywere :D
Normaly the file is uploaded in the mill and then the path has to be optimised. But as I said: ecgwe xD
 
@ED thanks so much for the detailed video on the case issues. Hard to believe that they were seriously thinking to jerry-rig spacers, but I guess it just highlights that small, detailed components is something they weren't comfortable working with. In any case the solutions are detailed and known, and the new company are inspiring a lot of confidence.

Shame they're on a long holiday, but I won't complain the rate they've been working to date. Hope they have a good break. :)
 
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